My Father's Latest Acquisition: The Wierdest Jeep You've Ever Seen

The other day I stopped by Dad's workshop and found this thing:



"What is it," you ask?  Well, sometime in the mid-1950's, Jeep designers, possibly under the influence of CIA-sponsored LSD experiments, decided that the fun and functional Jeeps that we'd all come to know and love were inadequate for hauling cargo.  Determined to solve this problem, they rearranged the little 4-wheel drive vehicle into a cabover pickup, putting the driver and passenger on either side of the engine.  This freed up a bit more space to put things in the bed and they called it a "forward control Jeep"


Here's a couple more pictures:






They only made them for a few years because the design didn't really catch on. Apparently consumers didn't like the fact that, when you hit the brakes going downhill without a load in the bed, the whole thing was likely to tip forward and stand on its nose (or even flip over completely). Even the installation of massive iron weights under the rear bumper wasn't enough to make them popular.


This one will need a lot of work:



But I think it's just wierd enough to make me want one. Count on me borrowing this thing for all of my hauling needs around town whenever he gets it up and running.


Meanwhile, I'm trying to give him ideas for a winning paintjob. Any suggestions?

.